Monthly Archives: November 2006

Registerfly = The AOL of domains.

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From Tripslair.com
Posted: November 14th, 2006
Author: Triphius

Caveat Emptor: RegisterFly

Posted: November 14th, 2006
Author: Triphius

This is a true and currently on-going story about my woes with RegisterFly: I recently was contacted by a client of mine, who attempted to send me and email regarding something, and informed me that his message bounced. He had called, thinking that I had changed my email address (which I had not). So, I did some research into the issue and realized that the domain in question’s DNS and Whois records had been changed. I first attempted to navigate though the always slow RegisterFly control panel and fix the settings, thinking that something had gone wrong during the recent renewal process…I was informed at that point that access was denied while attempting to make the changes. Very strange, considering that the domain was reading as active with an Expiration Date of 09-17-2007. I suppose at this point, it would be wise to backtrack a bit and mention that I renewed the domain prior to it expiring and what I didn’t realize is that the system didn’t recognize my attempt to renew, and neglected to send me an error message until a month and a half later (at which point the domain had ‘expired’). I opened a ticket to ask why this had happened, and I received a simple reply:

Your domains has been successfully renewed with your registerfly account.Please verify it.

Thanks.

Noel Posey
Rapid Response
Registerfly.com, Inc.
ICANN Accredited Registrar

I checked my domains and everything looked to be in order. The domains in question (including the one I am currently having issues with), were listed in my account manager with their expiration dates adjusted for the most recent renewal. All is good right? Of course not!

Going back to a couple of days ago, when I tried to fix the messed up DNS settings without success… I did what any client would do when there is a problem with one’s account. I opened a support ticket. Learning from that past, that if I wanted to get an answer to my tickets, I should place them in the “Rapid Response” queue; I did…and I waited.

I didn’t receive a response until the next day. When I checked my mailbox on Sunday morning, I saw that I had a response from the “Rapid Response” department at RegisterFly. The response reads as such:

You did not renew your domain in time. This domain name is in extended redemption status. You can not renew/trnasfer this domain. You have to pay $209 to reclaim your domain or wait till it will drop from registry.

Thank You.

Johannes Nel
Rapid Response
Registerfly.com, Inc.
ICANN Accredited Registrar

I didn’t renew my domain in time? That doesn’t sound right. By the own admission of Noel Posey with RegisterFly’s Rapid Response department, the domain had been successfully renewed. Also, 209 dollars? This is starting to sound bad… At this point, I respond to the ticket to clarify the issue, and the history with the domain’s recent renewal issues, only to receive a response from a completely different person!

Due to failed or late renewal your domain slip in extended to redemption period and this domain going to be drop by registry to register again.

The domain is extended to redemption period means it can be reactivated by paying $209 otherwise the domain can be sold in marketplace at any time. There is no specific period for this domain to be dropped.

Thank You

Sam Alvarez
Rapid Response
Registerfly.com, Inc.
ICANN Accredited Registrar

So, it appears that I need to explain the issues again. I decide to give one more attempt at explaining what has happened with the domain in the past renewal cycle. I got somewhat lucky this time, in that I received a response from the same person. However, the content of the response wasn’t quite what I was hoping:

You have transferred this domain to registerfly on 2004-08-21 and i can see your last attempt of renew made on 2005-09-15 and after that renewal attempt i am not able to see any renewal attempt for this domain.

You did not renewed this domain on time that why this domain is under extended to redemption period.

Thank you

Sam Alvarez
Rapid Response
Registerfly.com, Inc.

At this point, I’m a little “pissed off” (which is to be expected). I respond to “clarify”, once again that there were issues with RegisterFly’s renewal system, and that it had not renewed properly and that it had been taken care of by Noel Posey. A fact that is backed by the whois record for the domain. Both it and my account manager say that my domain has been renewed until 09-17-2007 and that it is active. If it were in some “redemption” status, surely the whois information would indicate such a thing. As of the writing of this post, I have yet to receive a response from RegisterFly.

As for the 209 dollars to recover a domain that is actively registered to my own account, but currently displaying a search parking site controlled by RegisterFly…well that just sounds like extortion to me.

I am currently attempting to get in contact with eNom (who is the controlling registrar used by RegisterFly), in hopes to get some useful information and/or a solution to this issue.

In the mean time, however, I need to figure out what registrar I’m going to move all my domains to after all is said and done. If anyone reading has any suggestions, comments, words of advice and/or similar experiences…I’d love to hear them.